The Vanderbilt-Meharry community benefits from strong programs in HIV/AIDS clinical care, research, and[unreadable] training. Particular strengths include access to a large, diverse patient population through established clinical[unreadable] research and outcomes research infrastructures, electronic databases and specimen archives for[unreadable] translational and outcomes research, accomplished outcomes and epidemiology programs suitable for[unreadable] studying HIV/AIDS, established HIV/AIDS clinical research programs, strength in human genomics relevant[unreadable] to HIV, and recent recruitment to Vanderbilt and Meharry of many accomplished HIV investigators who will[unreadable] expand the scope and impact of HIV research. A clear focus of the Clinical Discovery Core (CDC) is to foster[unreadable] multidisciplinary, high-impact translational and epidemiology/outcomes HIV research at Vanderbilt and[unreadable] Meharry. The CDC will build upon existing strengths to continue developing a program in HIV outcomes[unreadable] research, with an emphasis on training new investigators, collaborations with established investigators, and[unreadable] the study of racial and gender disparities. A long-term goal is to improve HIV clinical research and training[unreadable] capacity at Meharry, which includes its historic mission of training people of color to serve the under-served[unreadable] via care, education, and research. The two primary components of the CDC are The Epidemiology and[unreadable] Outcomes Unit and The Targeted Research Cohorts Unit. With this structure the CDC is ideally positioned to[unreadable] foster research that spans the continuum from bench to bedside to community. The CDC will focus particular[unreadable] effort in three special scientific programs that have great potential for high impact and multidisciplinary[unreadable] collaboration: 1) International HIV/AIDS Research; 2) Human Genomics Relevant to HIV/AIDS, and 3)[unreadable] Research in NeuroAIDS. These scientific programs, as well as other CDC activities, will be operationalized[unreadable] through dynamic, task-oriented working groups. The CDC will greatly accelerate the pace of discovery by all[unreadable] disciplines focused on HIV/AIDS in the Vanderbilt-Meharry community, and will ultimately improve[unreadable] understanding regarding pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment of this devastating infection.